Muhammad Yunus

Here's a break from the food posts, because I want to write a short piece on Muhammad Yunus, a total badass. Yunus won the Nobel Piece Prize for his work in microfinance. Never heard of microfinance? Maybe that's because its counter-cultural nonprofit, unintuitive idea, but one that has the potential to change the world. In Bangladesh, Yunus just started lending out his money to people who were being screwed by banks, either with crazy interest rates or outright refusals to lend.

His initial $27 USD loan helped 42(!) women, and Yunus knew he was onto something. He wrote a book about how small loans disproportionally help those in poverty, especially 3rd world working women. He then started a bank whose the main purpose to loan out interest free cash to those in poverty.

Down the line, others realized Yunus was really onto something, and kiva.org popped up. I found out about it first from Haley, and I just signed up for it this morning. I gave some money to Soeun Mao raising pigs in Cambodia, and Nejua Remijo selling food in Sudan. Sounds downright awesome to me.

There's so much good being done here. And even if you want to be selfish, you can get your money back (repayment for past loans is above 98%). Last night at cell we were talking about it's futile to recognize the bad in the world, and then sit around asking why. Life is about doing.